The Ba’ of Scone

Shrove Tuesday · Scone, Perthshire

No longer kept

Chambers knew of no place where Shrovetide football was played with more energy than Scone, near Perth. The married men and the bachelors met at the cross, a ball was thrown up, and they played from two o’clock till sunset. The ball could be carried or thrown but never kicked: the married men tried to hang it, putting it three times into a hole on the moor, and the bachelors to drown it, dipping it three times in a deep place in the river. If neither side won, the ball was cut in two at sunset.

it is a proverb in this part of the country, that "A' is fair at the ba' o' Scone."

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 238. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Ludlow Rope-pulling No longer kept ShropshireOn Shrove Tuesday the Ludlow corporation handed a thick rope, thirty-six yards long, out of a window of the Market Hall at four o'clock.
Lent Crocking No longer kept Dorset, WiltshireIn Dorset and Wiltshire boys went shroving in small bands, armed with the year's broken crockery.
Holly Boy and Ivy Girl No longer kept KentLate in the eighteenth century a Kentish village kept a Shrovetide custom in two halves.
Threshing the Hen No longer kept Cornwall, WalesA hen that had not laid before Shrove Tuesday was counted useless.
Barring Out the Master No longer kept CumberlandAt Fasten's Even the scholars of the free school at Bromfield claimed an old right to shut their master out for three days.
The Pancake Greaze Still kept LondonAt eleven on Shrove Tuesday a verger of Westminster Abbey with a silver baton led the school cook, in white apron, jacket and cap, into the schoolroom carrying a pancake.

The Ba’ of Scone

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